Earlier, French clubs agreed to continue participating in the League Cup only on the basis that the competition no longer offers a Europa League place to the winner, a proposal that was accepted by the Ligue de Football Professionnel.
But Patrick de Carolis, head of France Télévisions, said the move would constitute a “substantial modification” to the terms of the league’s rights tender, since the qualification spot was “clearly a major defining characteristic” of the League Cup competition.’ Removing it would be a “waste of all the work put in over the last 15 years, would devalue the competition and risk transforming it into a series of meaningless, friendly matches.” If this were the case, he said, “the majority of matches would no longer be of interest to free-to-air television”.
France Televisions was the only bidder when the LFP put the rights out to tender back in February, but its €10 million-a-year offer, below the €12 million-a-year it pays now, was rejected as too low.